SAP “plays games” with analysts

Josh Greenbaum caught my eye with his blog title. No, not mind games, but actual gamification of analyst relations.

I have been generous to SAP over the last few years for their blogger relations. Making the sharing experience more playful and enjoyable takes it to a new level.

This while so many other vendors still play the press release game. People chuckle about the inane stuff folks put in their Facebook pages or tweets. You should see some of the press releases that cross my inbox!

Or many other vendors put artificial boundaries around journalists, industry analysts, financial analysts and bloggers. It is their convoluted version of “message control”.

Compared to that SAP has been refreshingly open - to a point. I have for over 15 years asked them about their prohibitively expensive  ecosystem and most of the answers are canned and as unaware of customer realities as they were, well 15 years ago. Same with progress around BYD, maintenance pricing for the last few years.

I guess that game will not change. We ask, they selectively share.

In fact, it could be the makings of a new game for Zynga. Especially, if it can incorporate a quote about media relations Fortune attributed to Safra Catz at Oracle :)